Feedback/Dicussion Guide for in-progress Analytical Reports

Share Drafts

Share your drafts to this folder.

Big Questions

Some questions to ask and discuss for in-progress drafts. These are questions I have as the audience/solititor of the reports:

• Does the report answer the questions I hope to find some answers for? A good way to test to this – can you say back to the writer in your own terms what their answers are in response to the questions? You might start like this – “Your answer to the question of…is…”
• Does the report indicate that the writer has a good understanding of the PierceHacker project (e.g. they have read the project website, etc.)? And does the report make clear that the writer has an understanding of “information competency,” particularly as it is defined by Pierce College?
• A variation of the questions above – what are the recommendations of the writer/report? Are these clear? Are these recommendations based on clear criteria that writer has developed and articulated? Again, having read the report, can you as a reader say back to the writer in your own terms what the recommendations are? Can you point to specific moments in the report where these recommendations are clearly stated?
• What data has the writer used in support of their recommendations? Have they gone beyond the survey and incorporated other research? If so, is this clear? Is their analysis of the data and the relationship of the data to the recommendations seem clear? Again, you describe in your own terms these relationships?

Since these are in-progress drafts some of these questions may not be answerable at in relatiojn to the literal draft; however, they can still be a basis of discussion for what the writer’s plans are. For example, can the writer articulate at this point what their recommendations are even if they haven’t been written into the draft yet?

Tetxual Features and Elements of the Report

Analytic (and other) reports tend to have some common elements in their content/design. For each of these, describe what you notice in the report you’ve read and if you have suggestions you might offer in this area.